


Rescue

by Jinmukang



Series: Whumptober 2020 [25]
Category: Batman and Robin (Comics)
Genre: Explosions, Injury, Jason accidentally acquires a baby brother, Kidnapping, No.25, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Ringing Ears, Whumptober 2020, blurred vision, damains not happy about it either
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27187099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinmukang/pseuds/Jinmukang
Summary: Early into Damian's run as Robin, he finds himself in the aftermath of a warehouse explosion.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne
Series: Whumptober 2020 [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946413
Comments: 11
Kudos: 177
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Rescue

**Author's Note:**

> nyeh -throws fic at you-
> 
> note: red haired jason doesn't exist in my house.

Damian's ears are ringing. That's the first thing he's aware of. The high pitched chiming that's almost as grating as the bells sewn into the tips of Christmas hats. The next thing he becomes aware of is just… _pain_. Biting close to agony. He shifts, tries to cringe away from the pain, but all it does is tug at something crushingly heavy that lays over his body. 

It's a task and a half just to pry his own eyes open. They're crusted, with blood or just normal gunk he's not sure. All he knows is that when his eyes finally open, the only thing there is to see are blurry blobs of orange shooting up towards a black abyss. It's then when he realizes just how hot he is. 

Desperate to figure out what's going on and where he is, he brings his hands to the heavy pressure laying over his chest. It doesn't go anywhere when he pushes, but he really doesn't feel that strong, and he’s not sure he’d be able to push against the pressure even if he understood what was going on. He blinks his blurry eyes and licks his chapped lips, but nothing happens besides him being made aware of a pounding ache at the side of his head. 

He tries to relax his body now, maybe lay there and let himself calm down from the confusion of waking up disoriented, but the moment he lets his muscles go limp, he catches sight of a big, hulking figure approaching quickly through the orange blobs. 

Immediately, Damian's in fight mode. The figure stops before him, towering like a dark demon, before it kneels down. The second it's within shot, Damian lashes out, throwing out a fist to try and hit… hit _somewhere_. 

It's useless as his small wrist is easily caught in shadows. The fingers wrapped around his wrists feel tight enough to bruise. 

Something booms through the ringing in his ears. Something that sounds like the muffled sounds of voices on the other side of a thick wall. Damian tries to focus. Tries to tug his wrist. Tries to at least listen to the deep voice that almost sounds familiar… he just can't place why. He knows it. He can’t place anything at all.

"-eve it or not, I'm trying to _help-_ "

And then Damian can't focus anymore, not as the figure leans over him and shoves off whatever is pinning Damian down. His entire world becomes one of vertigo as the strange person hefts him up and over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. Damian's ribs scream in protest, and it's all he can do at least _try_ to struggle. However, a strong arm wraps around his kicking legs with laughable ease. Damian's soon rendered helpless, hanging from the person's broad shoulders, his hands able to do nothing but weakly hit their leather jacket clad back. 

His vision sways. He's pretty sure he might be bleeding from his ears. And the pain only intensifies as he's carried.

Damian almost wants to cry in frustration. He has no idea who this person is… or what they want with him. What if they were the one who hurt him? What if it's them who caused Damian to wake up here? 

What if this was an enemy, and Damian couldn't even struggle. 

Pathetic. 

"-ot you- I got-" 

Damian blinks, or maybe falls asleep, and when he opens his eyes the world is speeding past him and his head feels heavy with a biker's helmet that doesn't belong to him. There's a large body pressed against his chest, and his arms are wrapped around their torso and somehow tied to stay there. 

The world tilts, and Damian loses consciousness again... which is better than throwing up like he almost does.

-o-o-o-o-

Waking up is even worse the second time. Mostly because Damian is more aware to feel just how much pain he’s in.

He groans and tries to shift, but once again he’s stopped. 

Only, this time it’s because his hands are zip-tied together and attached to his belt. His eyes fly open with a shot of adrenaline. He reaches into his utility belt and tries to find something to free himself with, but he quickly finds that there’s nothing there. His belt has been completely disarmed. 

“Stop moving around so much,” a voice suddenly growls, but it’s muffled. Like Damian has cotton stuffed in his ears. He’s now awfully aware of a persistent and sharp ringing right behind his eardrums. “I worked hard on your stitches.”

Damian opens his eyes and while nothing goes into focus, he’s still able to direct his eyes over to who he least expected to come to his rescue, but who he supposes he’s now the captive of. 

Jason Todd. His big, muscled form sits across whatever small room Damian’s in with his hands across his chest. His helmet is nowhere to be seen, but the vague outline of red over his eyes suggests he’s wearing a mask. Damian forces his body to relax and compose itself as he does his best to study his surroundings. All he can really make out is the vague walls of the room—painted a distasteful brown—and the bare, hard as a rock mattress he lays on top of. He tries to shift into a better position, to not look as vulnerable in front of the _enemy_ , but he’s quickly stopped by two different things.

One is the plastic bindings around his ankles. The other is that the movement makes him very aware of those stitches Todd was talking about.

Instead of risking making a fool of himself by wriggling like a caterpillar, nor risking tearing his stitches, Damian glares at Todd through the haze of blurriness.

“What-” Damian starts, but he’s cut off as his chest explodes into fire. His chest _hurts._

Todd stands up as Damian desperately tries to get a hold of himself. He tenses as the villain gets too close and reaches to the side to grab something blurry. 

Damian tenses as Todd holds out whatever he’s holding out to Damian’s face. Damian cringes back, but Todd has none of it. He grabs Damian by the shoulder and hefts him up so he’s sitting, his body haunches over slightly as his hands remain trapped just under his belly button. He hisses at the smarting the movement causes and blinks spots from his eyes. 

Todd lets go Damian, unfortunately, has to catch his breath as a seed of confusion settles at the back of his skull. Even though being lifted like this hurt… Todd was shockingly gentle.

Before he can even try to consider what that could mean and how that ties into whatever crazy plan Todd had up his sleeves, the thing held out to him earlier is once again shoved under his nose. Sitting up may have rubbed every single one of his injuries the wrong way, but it’s also somewhat cleared his head; enough so that he can tell that the item held to his mouth is…

An opened bottle of water.

Damian scowls. “How do I know it’s not drugged,” he growls. Or gurgles. It feels like someone took a blade to his mouth and carved the inside of his esophagus apart. 

“Because,” Todd says, sounding insultingly amused, “I have a syringe filled with actual sedatives that I’ll give ya if you keep being difficult. Drink.”

Damian is almost tempted to turn down the water out of spite. But his chest… feels like it’s on fire. Even the thought of speaking another word gives him the feeling that something red hot and unpleasant is dripping down his throat. Instead of saying anything, he opens his mouth and shoves any embarrassment he would normally have somewhere else in his mind. Todd rather… carefully… pours the water into Damian’s mouth. At first, the liquid stings, but soon enough Damian doesn’t even care about how undignified it is to be given water like this. It feels cold and refreshing going down his throat. Soothing. He tells himself that it’s just him accepting help. Grayson says accepting help is never shameful. 

Granted, Todd is the one who has tied him up and made him helpless to quench his own thirst. 

But he’ll worry about the details later.

Once the plastic bottle is empty, Todd puts the cap back on and then begins to crush the plastic between his hands, twisting it at the middle mindlessly as he regards Damian. Damian regards him as well as he tries to figure out what exactly is going on and what will happen from this point forward.

He clears his throat. “Why am I here?”

“Cuz you almost got yourself blown up in a warehouse,” Todd says back, his voice sharp.

Ah. Damian remembers now. He snuck off away from Grayson during patrol after they had an argument about Grason not trusting Damian to go off on his own. He found… some sort of shady deal going on by the docks and… while the rest of the details are a bit harder to recall, he still knows that it quite literally ended with a bang. Todd must have been close by.

It doesn’t explain why he helped Damian though. Nor why he took Damian back here. 

Instead, he glares at the fuzzy outline of Jason Todd. “What do you want from me?”

Todd shrugs. Leans back, twists the annoying bottle in his hands some more. “Nothing. I’m just waiting for the sedative to kick in.”

Damian freezes. Then glares. Of course. Of _course_ he's drugged Damian anyways.

Almost immediately after that, he feels a wave of dizziness take over. Damian sways against his will, but before he can completely fall over, Todd grabs him by the shoulders and lowers him back onto the mattress. 

“Don’t take it personal, squirt,” Todd mumbles, his voice becoming very far away. Damian’s blurry vision begins to swim. “It’s just gonna be easier to deal with big bird while you’re knocked out. And you can’t try and fight me if you’re asleep.”

Damian blinks hard and tries to make sense of the swirling world above him. “Wh… what…”

“Just wait, next time you wake up, you’re gonna be back home with everyone worrying bout’cha.’

The end of Todd’s sentence becomes nothing but words bouncing around uselessly around Damain’s skull. Before he knows it, his eyelids are unwillingly closing and everything becomes silent.

-o-o-o-o-

Todd is right. The next time Damian wakes up, he’s in his bedroom, Grayson immediately perking up to attack him with... unwanted?... cuddles and worries. Time has definitely passed, and he’s painfully aware of every stitch, bruised rib, and burn on his body. He explains to Grayson once his stomach is no longer rolling that Todd hasn’t done anything to hurt him besides drugging him.

Grayson then explains that he got a note from Todd to meet him to pick Damian up and then didn’t get a single explanation as to what Todd’s intentions or plans were once he got there. Apparently, Damian was handed over willingly and without much tussle besides some sass. Todd left before Grayson even got Damian to the car, saying to forget about the safehouse they were at because he’s not going to be using it again.

Damian can tell Grayson is trying to find reason in Todd’s recent actions; it’s like he’s trying to convince himself that Todd is still some version of a boy he knew long ago, before he went off the deep end and started killing anyone he saw problematic. 

Damian doesn’t tell Grayson of Todd’s shocking gentleness. He doesn’t want to give his hopes up.

Because while Damian, too, finds Todd’s behavior odd tonight, he also knows that perhaps seeing Robin go into an exploding warehouse brought up specific memories for the man. Damian is aware of the circumstances of his demise. He probably just didn’t want to see someone go out the same way he did with the same colors and name.

One thing is for sure, Damian will continue to treat Todd like an enemy until he can prove himself to be trustworthy.

Until he can prove that gentleness isn’t reserved for accidental kidnappings and ransoms. 

Weeks pass, and Damian is reluctantly cleared by Pennyworth to rejoin Grayson into the city for patrol. They run into Todd then, and if Todd happens to not hit as hard as he normally does… well… Damian keeps that to himself.

For now, at least, they’re enemies. But Damian has known Grayson long enough to know that nothing is set in stone, even a bloody warpath. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! good job making it to the end, because i actually really don't like this one but i am tired of looking at it. 
> 
> i would still appreciate comments tho! also sorry for falling behind on replying to them... it's been busy and i will get to replying to comments on this fic and all the ones ive missed once i have time. thanks! i appreciate yall <3


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